The growth in IoT is more at the end user sensors, actuators
Samsung
bought Smartthings because they see growth in the end user devices.
Those are the sensors for open/close, light, motion, vibration,
temperature, 3-axis motion, humidity, smoke, Carbon monoxide,
sensors, personal health monitors for heart, pulse, blood pressure,
exercise and actuators for lighting, power outlets, relays like
garage door openers, tiny motors top lock and unlock doors. Unlike
the expensive approach by Belkin to add WIFI in these devices, ultra
low power 900MHz Zigbee, z-wave devices with very small memory and
nearly zero CPU/software will dominate.
So,
all these sensors and actuators (Things) need to communicate back to
the end user through Internet (when available) or directly when there
is no Internet. Think of an exercise band talking to smart phone
without data connection and later send info to the cloud when
connected.
I
said earlier that the hub to which all the local devices connect is
where the intelligence lies. The hub needs to filter out and compact
the data and communication from the end user devices like the sensors
and actuators and the cloud. The hub needs to minimize communications
with the Internet. The hub currently connects to Internet through the
router which connects to cable/DSL modem currently. If done well, a
SIM card in the hub with tiny data use bypasses the router in case of
cable/DSL outage and adds reliability.
Samsung
recognized all this and the next gen smart hub will connect also to
the cellular data. It also does allow operation of all the local
devices if there is a battery backup power to the hub and WIFI
router. This way the smart phones stay connected to the local devices
in the even of power and/or Internet outage.
So,
what next?
There
is so much in common between the hardware in the smart hub and the
router that beefing up the router a bit in CPU, RAM, local storage
(SD card slot), adding ZigBee, Zwave radios will eliminate the need
for a separate hub. By doing this, it is possible to centralize the
use of flash memory in one place and allow automatic backup of video
from several security cameras for example and lower the system cost,
add reliability. Lots of room for creativity and innovation in
software and hardware in the smart hub plus router.
Why
I think can Samsung do this?
A
wild idea: Samsung partners with Asus the current leader in routers.
Asus is more dominant in the PC business and Samsung needs to add
innovation to Mobile business. Samsung has some PC business and Asus
has some Mobile business. Asus has cheaper and efficient
manufacturing infrastructure which Samsung needs. Samsung is dominant
in consumer electronics and major force in home appliances which IoT
wants to connect. Samsung can suck in the functionality of
Chromecast into this smart hub, router combo and stream or add HDMI
output to give a better UI than just a blinking LED. All this can be
done for a retail price less than that of a router and smart hub.
That is food for thought.
Google?
They
have smart phones, Nest thermostat, Dropcam, smoke and carbon
monoxide detectors and expanding the program. They can easily add
900MHz radios to either their media player and they too can buy a
router company if they wish but that is not their forte. Google can
gain from the need for cloud storage. But so can Microsoft and
Dropbox. Amazon could get in the cloud storage too.
Apple?
Apple
is very well positioned and they are already making inroads. They
could just add the 900Mhz and low power Bluetooth low energy radios
to their router and make it a smart hub. They could integrate their
media player into it. They have cloud servers as well. They could add
more sensors to the phones and do very well in the personal health
and fitness devices. They could easily create an API to talk to the
900MHz devices already existing. They could just take the top 10% of
the market and make 30% of the profit dollars.
Intel?
I do
not see Intel's chips in the router or smart hub. I do see Intel in
the phablets and tablets in addition to the PCs but that has nothing
to do with IoT and the end user. The only play is the cloud servers
which already exist. The bandwidth is driven not by sensors and
actuators but by video from security cameras. Google could use Intel
in the servers for example.
Cisco?
Sure.
But in the cloud networking and not at the high growth device level.
Oracle?
One
could argue that more devices implies database management at the
cloud but then, end users concerned about security may not want too
much personal info in the cloud. They may want it on a flash memory
locally and stream over Internet securely.
In
fact I see lot of room for database management and server software in
the smart hub. This is not really the core competence of Samsung and
here in lies an opportunity. Not the domain of Google or any cloud
service.
I am
sure that I will be having more thoughts on this topic.
